The auction of four works by abstract artist Clyfford Still tonight sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $114.1 million, shattering a pre-action high estimate of $71.5 million.

The tally was boosted in particular by the sale of “1949-A-No. 1,” a large red and black canvas that sold for $61.7 million, nearly triple the previous auction record for a Still painting of $21.3 million set in 2006 at a Christie’s International sale. The pre-gavel estimated high for the work was $35 million.

The city of Denver consigned four paintings to endow the new Clyfford Still Museum, which will open Nov. 18.

The under the terms of the contract between Sotheby’s and Denver, the auction house will receive a $15 million commission on the sale.

After commission and taxes, the city will bring home about $85 million that will be used to assure the financial viability of the privately funded Clyfford Still Museum. It will be used for everything from research to general operations.

The four works were bequeathed to the city by Patricia Still, the artist’s widow, who died in 2005. She endowed about 2,000 pieces from her husband’s collection to Denver in 2004 on the agreement that the city would oversee the construction of a museum to house them. After her death, about 400 more works from her estate, including the four up for sale, also went to Denver.

Still is considered one of the most important artists in abstract expressionism, in the company of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

According to the November issue of Art + Auction magazine, the quartet of works was the “most impressive offering” in this week’s contemporary sales at the major auction houses in New York.

“The audience has been responsive to these paintings,” Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art and principal auctioneer for Sotheby’s, said Monday. “They’ve been very much admired, and we expect a very good result for Wednesday night.”

After showings in London and Hong Kong in October, the four paintings have been on view for two weeks in Sotheby’s New York galleries in anticipation of the sale.

The big question, emblazoned on Art + Auction’s cover, is whether the largest of the four works, “1949-A-No. 1,” would top the record for a Still painting. Pre-auction estimates for the painting ranged from $25 million to $35 million.

The high price for Still’s works is attributed to supply and demand. About 94 percent of the works he produced will be housed in the Still Museum, and, according to director Dean Sobel, only about 40 pieces by the artist are in private hands.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.